Today I was introduced to an article that peaked my interest, with the tag line “Social media post saved restaurant from closing”. The article talked about a local restaurant getting an increased amount of traffic seemingly all due to a Facebook post. Their business was slowly losing customers in the winter as it usually did, but couldn’t stay open any longer if this persisted. So they went to Facebook with this message, “At Zins, we need about 12 more people per day that we are open to make this work.” They received enough traffic to stay open after the post was shared hundreds of times.
This story is truly amazing and wouldn’t work in all cases, but it does show you how powerful Facebook can be. You are directly reaching your customers or potential customers on a free medium. Before spending advertising dollars on radio, TV, or even Yellow Books (aka a trash can for your money) think about the most effective way of reaching your customers. Where do they spend the most time? Where can they engage with your brand? What is the most cost effective? More times than not the answer is Facebook.
First-hand experience on our end also helps put it in perspective. We run multiple Facebook campaigns for local businesses and have seen outstanding results. Our biggest success on Facebook has led a page with 200 likes to reach nearly 3000 likes in a four-month span. We have seen with a $50 budget a post reach a targeted local audience of 15,000 people. The big difference when reaching that many people is that people like to engage others on Facebook whereas an ad on TV or radio is a one-way experience. If you are struggling with your business’s Facebook page it’s probably because you aren’t active enough or not sharing the right things. Carve out more time to think of engaging posts on your Facebook or give us a call and see if we can help because you will see results. We have years of professional Iowa City web design and social media experience.
